Knight and the Witch 02 - A Summer Bewitchment (24 page)
“I have not been myself of late, too anxious even for me.”
She thought she heard a snort behind her but wisely Magnus said nothing.
“I thought it was because of the Lady Astrid and Tancred and the mirror they held up to me.”
“A false one. You are my wife.”
“Your wife and your witch.” It felt good to say both. “Then, with all this recent talk of lost children and our search for missing children, I did not understand myself. But I do now.”
She stopped and turned to him. She took him in her arms, hearing the steady drum of his heart as she leaned against him. “We are, that is I am, no, we are.”
She broke off, wanting to say this well, wanting to see his face. She looked up at him. The love in his eyes made it simple to say. “I am having your baby, Magnus.”
Glory shimmered in his face then, making him whole again and beautiful. With warm, steady fingers he touched her cheek and forehead, brushed her shoulder, gathered her hand in his. “When?” he murmured.
“Sometime after Christmas-time, possibly in Lent.”
“When the early lambs come. A lamb of our own.”
She smiled at the wonder in his voice and placed his palm on her belly. He cradled the tiny life there, accepting the babe. “Ours,” she agreed.
“Ours.” He knelt amidst the bluebells and wrapped his arms about her, kissing her navel, resting his head against her as if searching already for another heart-beat within her. She ran her fingers through his black, straggling curls, traced a scar down his cheek to his patchy beard and chin.
“Clever lass,” he murmured. She felt a tear, his tear, soak into her blue silk sash. “My clever lass.”
“Kiss me,” she whispered. “Kiss me, Magnus. Make love to me as you have before.” She knelt within the shield of his arms and began to unpin the silk.
He gently plucked the pin from her and caught hold of her fingers. “You are well, Elfrida? You will take no hurt?”
“Not a bit,” she said cheerfully. “Neither myself nor the babe.” She unpinned the second brooch and the silk slithered from her shoulders, leaving her naked to the waist.
Now he reached for her, her Magnus, her husband and soon to be her lover.
Again
.
Elfrida smiled and let herself be overwhelmed, aware that their night together had only begun, a summer bewitchment for them both.
THE END
Lindsay lives in Yorkshire, England, where she was born, and started writing stories at an early age. Always a voracious reader, she took a degree in medieval history and worked in a library for a while, then began to write full-time after marriage.
She is also fascinated by the medieval and ancient world, especially medieval Britain, where she set
The Snow Bride
and
A Summer Bewitchment
, and also ancient Rome, Egypt, and the Bronze Age.
Flavia’s Secret
, a historical romance set in Roman Britain, came out from Bookstrand in 2008, and two more historical romances,
Blue Gold
, set in ancient Egypt, and
Bronze Lightning
, set in Bronze Age Greece and the Britain of Stonehenge, were published by Bookstrand in early 2009. Two erotic historical romances,
Escape to Love
and
Silk and Steel
are both published by Siren and set in the ancient Roman world.
Bookstrand also published Lindsay’s sweet and sensual romantic suspense, set in various countries including Britain, Greece, Italy, and Spain. These romances are
A Secret
Treasure
(set in Rhodes),
Palace of the Fountains
(set in Spain),
Chasing Rachel
(set on Dartmoor, England), and
Holiday in
Bologna
(set in Italy).
When not writing or researching her books, she enjoys walking, reading, cooking, music, going out with friends and long languid baths with scented candles (and perhaps chocolate).
For all titles by Lindsay Townsend, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/lindsay-townsend
www.BookStrand.com